


Tendencies

by CityFallArc



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Animal Death, Leo needs help, Like some actual therapy, Mild Gore, Psychopath, Psychopathic Tendencies, Sociopath, sociopathic tendencies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27152629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CityFallArc/pseuds/CityFallArc
Summary: As far as he’s concerned, this is perfectly fine. After all, they’re just animals, and it’s not like anyone is actually getting hurt. But it’s his own little secret, and anyone who finds out must keep quiet.Au where Leo has some not so good tendencies. Set when they are young.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24





	Tendencies

**Author's Note:**

> This kinda just popped into my head and I really wanted to write it down. Who knows, maybe I’ll make another chapter about the implications of this when they are older. This is probably not an accurate portrayal of sociopaths or psychopaths.

It’s fascinating.  
Leo pokes at the dead rat, sitting off in a corner of the lair not much looked at.  
Leo traces the body with his finger, reminding himself to wash his hands later.  
And to hide the body.  
It’s not like he meant to kill it.  
Ok, maybe he meant it a little bit.  
But Leo couldn’t help it. He loved the way the eyes went glassy and the body would go limp.  
How the heartbeat would slow, no matter if the killing was slow and painful or quick and harmless. The body was barely warm anymore at this point.  
It is his own little secret.  
Leo loves dead things, especially when he has killed them himself.  
Such violent tendencies for a seven year old, but he thinks nothing of it.

After all, he couldn’t really feel things like his brothers.  
The way they felt when something happened on the television, didn’t affect him. The talks of empathy from his father didn’t make him feel compassion for others like they were supposed to.  
So this was entertainment. A distraction from that.

When they first found him with a dead animal, a frog that must’ve been flushed down the toilets at some point to have gotten to the sewers, he blamed Donnie.  
It was pretty easy, Donnie had books on dissection and anatomy, which he claimed were for science only.  
It felt a little bit satisfying to watch his brother get scolded on why animals were not supposed to be harmed. The moral ambiguity being they were once animals themselves and their father being a mix of rat and man.  
Donnie has been trying to catch him ever since.

His efforts had been waning though, perhaps believing Leo’s apology that he had found it and thought Donnie had done it.  
Maybe accepting that the frog had hit its underside on a sharp rock, and that’s why all the guts were hanging out of it.

Leo picks up the small shard of glass he had found long ago and kept there. Hidden in the shadows.  
He splits open the rats midsection.  
A maniac smile creeping up his face as he pulls at the intestines and pokes more at the lifeless body, blood running down his fingers.

“Leo?”  
He’s snapped out of his fun time by his youngest brothers voice.  
“Hey Mikey.” Leo replies in a sickly sweet voice, forcing a innocent smile.  
“Why are you hurting the rat? Daddy is a rat too you know!” Mikey says a little loudly.  
“Shh.” Leo hushes.  
“I’m doing this to understand Splinter.” Leo had been the only one so far to call him that. “But you can’t tell anyone, ok? It’s a secret.” Leo waves him over.  
“It’s not exactly like him.” Leo explains as Mikey sits next to him.  
“But I’m learning a lot.” Leo smiles, a sadistic glint in his eye.  
“Shouldn’t you ask Donnie if you wanna know about daddy?” Mikey asks, eyes transfixed on the dead rodent.

“Donnie is still mad about the frog.” Leo points at the body. “Besides, we don’t wanna bother our little genius, do we? Learning and making his little inventions?”  
“I guess not...“ “Good. Remember, it’s a secret.” Leo pats his brothers head, a smidgen of blood leaving his finger and smudging on the back of his head.  
“Run along now.”  
Mikey runs off, the crimson stain barely noticeable.  
And Leo goes back to having his fun.

But Donnie notices. He somehow always notices something.  
He corners Leo when he’s practicing in the dojo.  
“Mikey had blood on the back of his head.” He states.  
“How peculiar.” Leo remarks, face blank.  
“I wiped it off, but he told me about the rat.”  
Dang it.  
“So he did huh? Guess he’s not that good at keeping secrets.”  
Donnie crosses his arms. “I knew it. I noticed the other little things, like the small animals that looked tortured to death, the way you stifle your laugh whenever something bad happens to someone on TV. You looked so excited when you learned you got swords, and you still train a lot so you can get sharp ones.”  
Leo glared at him. “And? Isn’t that what human boys do? Play with animals and enjoy violence, just like the little boys on TV do?”  
Donnie roughly grabs him by the arm without replying and drags him out of the dojo.

Leo follows without protest. Donnie couldn’t force him anywhere if he tried.  
Donnie might be taller, but Leo was stronger and more agile.  
Donnie stands in front of him in his makeshift lab, tools strewn across the old and rusty metal table their father had found in a dump.  
“You’re crazy.” Donnie huffs.  
“I wouldn’t say that, I’m more...curious.” Leo smirks.  
“No, I’m curious. You’re sadistic and insane.”  
“So what?” Leo replies, picking up a screwdriver and slowly turning it in his hands.  
“I think you’re a sociopath.”  
“Don’t know what that is Donnie.” Leo says mockingly.  
Donnie sighs and picks up a book, flipping through the pages before stopping on one.  
“A sociopath. Someone who has a limited and weak ability to feel empathy or remorse. A bit different from a psychopath, cause they don’t feel any remorse. And you deal with this by hurting others.”

“Here I thought you would be the crazy one, with all those body books and such.”  
“I’m serious Leo.” Donnie shoves the book in his face. “It’s not a disease that I can cure with our limited supplies, it’s a brain disorder that would need therapy or counseling. Something we don’t have access to either of. And it’s not like I could become one, even with all my psychology books.”

“And what makes you think I’m a sociopath and not a psychopath?” Leo asks, rolling his eyes.  
“I mean, I’m not entirely sure, but I know you’ll hurt more as you get older, and I’m not gonna let Mikey or Raph or even Dad be one of them.”  
Leo let’s out a spine chilling chuckle.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt our little family. I’m not a monster.” He reassures. Not like he could stop him anyways.  
“But just wait until we can see the surface. I hear they have birds and squirrels, along with so many other little creatures.”  
“Leo, you can’t keep doing this.”  
He puts down the screwdriver and begins examining a hammer instead.  
“Or what? You’ll tell Splinter? I can always blame our little scientist, the one who knows anatomy and dissection.”  
The rush of power that runs through Leo at seeing Donnies fearful expression is exhilarating.  
“I’m the perfect son. I do my chores without being asked, I go above and beyond in training, and never pick on my brothers like Raph does sometimes. I even defend them when needed.”

Leo taps the head of the hammer against his palm.  
“So what makes you think they’ll believe that I’m crazy. Even if I get caught, I’ll say I looked at some of your books and was curious.”  
Donnie is trembling.  
“Relax. I won’t hurt you.”  
Donnie sighs with relief.  
“But I can make things much harder for you”  
“I...you can’t...I’ll..” Donnie sputters.  
“You’ll do nothing.” Leo sets down the hammer and picks up the wrench, twirling it in hands like he did with the rest.

“I’m the crazy one, remember? Psychopath or sociopath, whichever one I am. You might be smart in terms of science Donnie, but I’ll outsmart you tactically every time, and you know it.”  
“Leo please, once I figure out how to get a computer, I can figure out ways to help you.”  
“Can’t be fixed, remember?”  
Donnie gulps, regretting the words he had said when he thought he had the upper hand.  
“Maybe crazy people don’t act the way I do. Or maybe I’m just curious and will grow out of this phase. But maybe, just maybe, you’re right. I manipulate, I lie, I kill. Maybe sociopaths or psychopaths, or whatever all act a bit different.”  
Leo sets down the wrench with a soft thud.

“Now I trust we can keep this private, right? And if Mikey asks, I was curious and found the rat dead first. Alright?”  
“Alright.” Donnie whispers.  
“Good.” Leo leaves his shaking brother in his messy lab with a sly grin.  
Maybe there’s a animal in the tunnels he can find.  
A new plaything for him to kill.


End file.
